


Second Verse

by ambiguously



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, MayThe4th Treat, Post-Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 06:15:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23966743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambiguously/pseuds/ambiguously
Summary: Barriss feels them wink out one by one, like a velvet blanket covering a sky full of stars.
Relationships: CC-2224 | Cody/Barriss Offee
Comments: 10
Kudos: 43
Collections: May the 4th Be With You Star Wars Fanworks Exchange 2020





	Second Verse

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tiend](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tiend/gifts).



Barriss feels them wink out one by one, like a velvet blanket covering a sky full of stars. The first deaths prick her, and more roll in, cascading in her mind with their last cries of shock and terror and bitter betrayal. The Jedi are dying, all of them across the galaxy, and she is alone in this cell, trapped and weeping.

Her jailers have said she's mad, and the insanity they placed on her as a label has kept her from execution. Barriss has never felt mad, only bound by a terrible clarity her former colleagues and friends refused to share, that this path was wrong and would lead them to destruction. Now she sits, crumpled on the cold floor, and the destruction rains inside her mind as those same friends perish. She reaches out, her powers muted by her own fears. Luminara lives yet, as does Ahsoka. How long will that last? Barriss has no hope.

"The clones dispatched them," one of her guards tells another hours later, well away from her cell but not outside her range of hearing.

"Traitors," says his fellow. "I heard the Jedi tried to assassinate the Chancellor and take over."

They say more, conversation drifting into speculation. Her ears prick when they mention her. "You think they'll terminate the prisoner, too?"

"Doubt it. She's no Jedi any more."

I am, she thinks. I am more of a Jedi than they were. I held to the truth. She holds her tongue. If her guards find out she can hear them, they won't bring her gossip.

She sleeps lightly, her dreams punctured by faraway deaths as more Jedi are hunted down. She wakes to the tasteless, nutritious food her captors insist she eat. She waits for a too-familiar face to appear on the other side of the force field, cold-eyed, stinking of death, ready to carry out his orders.

Weeks stretch out. The deaths have tapered into one or two per day. Ahsoka is still out there. Luminara is not.

She wakes to a sound, footsteps coming down the corridor. The Force tells her before she opens her eyes that this is the life presence of a clone, one of millions, all the same and all unique, and all bound now to murder the Jedi they once served and fought beside and bled for.

Barriss sits up, and with a heavy heart, she gets to her feet. She'd prefer to die standing, facing her destruction, although over the past few weeks she's decided she would prefer not to die at all.

The clone isn't wearing his helmet. She glances at his armor, his markings and insignia. "Hello, Commander."

There's death in Cody's eyes, but as they watch each other, Barriss sees it is not her death. He is reeling from the same overwhelming grief as she.

Barriss steps closer to the force field. "Tell me."

"I couldn't stop myself. I couldn't think of stopping. Good soldiers follow orders," he says hollowly.

She tilts her head, considering. "You were given the order and you obeyed."

"General Kenobi was my friend." His rough voice cracks. "He saved my life. I saved his. Why would I fire on him?"

She has no answers for him. She has no answers for herself. She watches him, waiting. He looks at her, past her, into his own personal hells. Without focusing on her, his hand reaches out and punches in the unlock code for the controls. The field drops between them. He can kill her now. She no longer believes he's come here for that.

Cody wets his lips in a nervous, frantic gesture. "Two of my men were coming here to execute you. I shot them." His world has ended, just as hers did the moment she chose her path. Barriss steps out of her cell, and she takes his hand, squeezing him through his gauntlet as he trembles. "The order is finished," he says, or perhaps he means the Order. "You're the last. I couldn't let you die."

"We should go."

He nods, and with a purpose now, he can guide her out. She sees the poor, dead bodies of the other two clones, and the bodies of her guards who were only doing their jobs. Cody has blood on his soul, but so does she. Judgment is for those who have never been faced with such choices.

Another guard steps into their way. Before Cody's blaster is raised, Barriss has grabbed him with her powers, shoving him hard into a wall. He crumples to the floor, unconscious but breathing. Cody nods at her, the wild sorrow in his eyes abating.

Fugitives can't take GAR equipment unless they want to be tracked, but there are vehicles for the stealing by two people with a little mechanical knowledge and the last of their old scruples left on the dirty floor of her cell long behind them. Ahsoka taught her how to rewire the starter controls for a ship, and Cody knows how to crack the fuel lock. "They jam on our ships," he tells her. "You have to know the back way in."

She expects pursuit, and soon enough, a general call comes out over all channels to look for the escaped terrorist Barriss Offee. Cody's name and number haven't gone out yet. He dropped his helmet with one of his murdered brothers. The confusion may take days to sort out, considering the roiling state of the galaxy now. It's enough time to flee.

His eyes are haunted again by the time they're safely in hyperspace on a heading far from the people they know. As a soldier, he's seen and dealt out death on a massive scale, but these last few weeks have cut him deeper than he could have imagined, and the wounds may be fatal. Barriss herself is likewise bleeding from the horrors she has caused and the ones she has felt echo inside her. He freed her because he understands her and she is with him because she understands him in turn. They will heal from this, she decides with an abrupt determination. She has the skill to heal bodies. Souls will take much longer, but the outcome will pay for the effort.

"Where do you want to go?" she asks him.

Cody is still shaking. "I don't know. Away."

"Then I'll choose." She examines the navicomputer. The galaxy is wide, and they are small, but together perhaps they can learn to be strong. She picks a world and sets the course.


End file.
